Music & Gender Inequality

The musical selection for breaking is not restricted to hip-hop music as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met. Breaking can be readily adapted to different music genres with the aid of remixing. The original songs that popularized the dance form borrow significantly from progressive genres of jazz, soul, funk, electro, and disco. The most common feature of b-boy music exists in musical breaks, or compilations formed from samples taken from different songs which are then looped and chained together by the DJ. The tempo generally ranges between 110 and 135 beats per minute with shuffled sixteenth and quarter beats in the percussive pattern. History credits DJ Kool Herc for the invention of this concept later termed the break beat.

A breakdance website states "Like the other aspects of hip-hop culture, graffiti writing, MCing, and DJing, males are generally the predominant gender within breaking. However, this is being challenged by the rapidly increasing number of b-girls. Critics argue that it is unfair to make a sweeping generalization about these inequalities because women have begun to play a larger role in the breaking scene.
Despite the increasing number of female breakers, another possible barrier is lack of promotion. As Firefly, a full-time b-girl says "It's getting more popular. There are a lot more girls involved. The problem is that promoters are not putting on enough female-only battles” More people are seeking to change the traditional image of females in hip-hop culture (and by extension, b-boy culture) to a more positive, empowered role in the modern hip-hop scene. The lower exposure of female dancers is probably caused not by any conscious discrimination, but simply by there being fewer female breakers. Since there are no female divisions in breaking as there are in "official" sports, they have to compete with men on equal terms. In any "b-boy" battle, if it is a one-on-one competition or crew vs. crew, b-girls attend the event as equals to the b-boys. They compete solo against other b-boys and as members of a crew alongside b-boys. All female b-girl crews battle against other breaking crews with no negative discrimination. When referencing women, the term "b-girling" is as acceptable as the term b-boying although not as widely used. Aside from the terminology, both males and females practice this art together."